Thursday, July 14, 2011

Can't believe I'm actually asking this question but it was suggested to me last night that perhaps the reason I'm pinging around so much on the hardtail and losing traction really easily on the slightest hint of gravel on a climb is that my rear tyre is perhaps a little too hard at 40psi....it did feel rock hard to squeeze tbh.

So...who runs what psi on the rear of their MTB? For info I use tubed Kenda Nevegal/Blue Groove combo on both geared MTBs all year round/in all conditions and usually have 30psi at the front and 40psi in the rear. Minimum pressure is allegedly 40 psi for both tyres (oops) but I've run the front at 30 for a good few years now with nary a problem (touches all the wood I can find).

I just have this irrational fear that lowering the rear to 35psi or below will result in a sensation of riding through treacle with a squidgy tyre, making everything harder, particularly climbing. Though I have at least realised these days that much more than 100psi in my skinny road tyres only feels faster as I'm pinging off everything on the road as opposed to actually travelling faster.

No point asking Jez as he runs closer to 50psi in his and thinks my front tyre in particular is too soft. No I don't generally let him inflate my tyres unsupervised and yes he has pumped mine up to 50psi before..just before setting off on a ride with lots of wet limestone, hilarious it was not.

Friday, July 8, 2011

After last weeks total swimming fail due to not being able to park anywhere near the beach because of the weather I have gotten up twice this week (Tuesday and today) and got an hour in the pool before work....and it wasn't that bad actually. A whole week out of the pool can really set me back.

I did have a couple of wtf am I doing here at this time of the morning but I am managing to get some good swimming in (that is a relative term!). I figured I should try to make it a bit of a routine before the school holidays start as lunchtime swims will be almost impossible.

I did head down at lunchtime yesterday for a short technique style session and it was a faff even then as some of the older kids have obviously finished and were in the pool. To be fair they were actually swimming but I get annoyed with (usually blokes) that thrash up the pool to beat me at crawl then slow breast stroke back because they are knackered and I catch them up.....

Feels like I've not done that much since the EDD, though looking at the stats its not quite true. It was no surprise (at least to me or Jez) that riding that far in that weather and taking in the best part of b*gger all calories did leave me somewhat lethargic for at least a week. What was a surprise was the fact that it took over a week for any sort of appetite to come back but hey ho. Enough time has passed that I have at least cycled in a headwind again..and a bit of rain.

June saw my motivation take an upturn when the weather did, though for some reason I have been hit quite badly a couple of times with hayfever. Not continually but has left me with a bunged up nose, streaming eyes a slight wheeze which made any sort of activity difficult.

It didn't occur to me that swimming would be affected but it was as I try to breathe out through my nose continually when my face is in the water. The chlorine actually irritated things even more and my nose unblocked just enough to allow a constant stream of snot out.

I decided that swimming through chlorinated snot wasn't a great idea (though at least it was my own I suppose), grim. Swimming was further kiboshed later in the month due to the world heading to the beach on the scorching days..I couldn't get parked within a mile of the pool in any direction those days.

I did manage a little bit of running, but hayfever and the heat meant I CBAd with it a lot. The totals don't look too bad though for the month:

31:18 hours overall which isn't too bad. I've had a rough goal since the beginning of the year to try to average out at an hour a day of exercise to help shed the lard jacket and I've managed it every month so far.

I should update on how that all went really, I think I've just about come to terms with my starting weight on the 1st of January this year...or maybe not but I've taken my eye off the ball slightly since the EDD and I don't want to head back to being that lardy again.

So scores on the door:

Weigh in 1st Jan.....66.7 kg (FFS, I'm only 5ft 4)Weigh in 14th May....60.4 kg much more like it, glad I didn't have to haul those 6 kilos round the EDD.

I'm not flying up hills on the bike at all but they definitely require less effort than they did, I've got a good bit of free speed in running (what I noticed the most actually) and all clothes fit really well again.

On the slight downside, headwinds got a lot harder on the bike as I lost some power, I don't roll as fast downhill and I get pinged around a lot more on offroad descents than I did, especially on the hardtail but I'm sure I'll get used to it. I started being sensible again last week and as usual I felt really sluggish once I cut out the extra crap (I'll get used to it again) and was starving for my whole 50 mile road ride on Saturday and ended up with:

In my defence I didn't put all that cream on and I had to scrape most of it off to eat the scone (then ate the cream, oops). Incidentally I still seem to be struggling to get out of the training for EDD mindset as every road ride still has me seeking out as many chevrons as possible. This didn't amuse Jez on our recent ride around Pendle Hill, that and I'd forgotten how lumpy it actually was.